May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It recognizes the achievements and contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
APAH Week
Representative Frank Horton of New York introduced a House resolution to designate the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Week. He introduced his resolution in June of 1977. Meanwhile, Senator Daniel Inouye from Hawaii introduced a similar bill in the Senate the next month. Neither bill passed. Undeterred, in June of 1978, Representative Horton introduced another resolution. Horton’s second resolution proposed the President should “proclaim a week, which is to include the seventh and tenth of the month, during the first ten days in May of 1979 as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week”. Horton’s second resolution finally passed. After that, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution on October 5, 1978. It designated the annual celebration.
APAH Month
Eventually, President George H.W. Bush signed a bill passed by Congress in 1990. The bill extended the week-long celebration into a month-long one. In 1992, May was designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Why May? Above all, to pay tribute to the first Japanese immigrants who arrived in the United States on May 7, 1843. Furthermore, it marked the anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s completion on May 10, 1869. Most of the workers who laid the railroad’s tracks were Chinese immigrants.
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Info Source: Apaics.org and AsianPacificHeritage.gov
Photo Source: Smcl.org
